Questions for all artists and humanists out there

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To some extent I think aspies are naturally poor empathizers and good systemizers, but not at all in the way Baron Cohen constructs it (and it's not at all a gendered thing), and there are some people on the spectrum who are actually really good empathizers (as well as many more who are terrible systemizers as well, whatever that is even supposed to mean).

As for whether psychologist requires being a natural empathizer, it depends on what type of psychologist you are, most posistions in psychology are actually more geared towards systemizers. Though I do know of at least one aspie who is the type of psychologist which requires being a good empathizer, can't remember where I heard about him though, he may or may not have been a member of these forums.

I worked in that general field, though didn't socialise in it. The attitude of superiority and dogmatic judgmentalism that often lay behind the mask of empathy put on for professional purposes sickened me. There were a few really wonderful people who were so gifted in qualities of intuition, empathy, and the kind of imaginative ability to truly see things from their clients' perspectives and experiential histories - but they were very rare examples, and probably would have been effective even without their professional training. Some of the psychiatrists really horrified me with their dehumanising attitudes towards their patients. I remember one of the most pompous always responding haughtily with "I am a scientist" whenever his ideas were disagreed with! Perhaps things are better now - I certainly hope so - though the helping profession does, unfortunately, still seem attract more than an incidental share of power trippers and narcissists from reports that I hear..

I just took that test. This is the results page...

It shows I score pretty low on EQ and very high in SQ. In fact my SQ is high enough that it says 'almost no women score this high.' But I am female. That said I am also gay so maybe my brain is more 'male' than that of straight females?

The thing is I have also worked, in the past, as a professional artist, so I don't see how the art stuff relates to this test. I do struggle to be imaginative. Getting a picture of what to paint is hard for me if it's not a portrait. But the technical execution of the painting is really fun. I used to paint only abstract geometrical shapes which perhaps might fit with the systematising idea...










But I've begun doing portraits a bit more now:








But I find this much harder - there are so many details it comes close to blowing my mind out every time I paint. The hard thing is to let go of details which are too small to include, but it's those details which I love.

I don't know if I'm a humanist. I thought humanism was a kind of philosophy. If that's true then I'm not one of those - I'm Christian.

By humanists I referred to people with a degree in humanities. What are your special interests?

Oh I see. My special interests are Science Fiction and Fantasy Stories (e.g. Star Wars, Harry Potter, A Song of Ice and Fire, (and especially the comics associated with some of these)) also Aircraft Safety and Biological / Medical Science.

I've not studied humanities since I was 16. My degree is in the sciences.

Anyone else?

I'm studying computer science, but I also plan on at least minoring in psychology, and maybe throwing in something music related in as well.

Besides being an artists? Wow..

There is Quinn, who has written several articles here.